The room was completely full – mostly students. Female student introduced the speakers and read Dr. Macauley’s recent op-ed piece in which he states his 9 yr old vaccinated daughter had pertussis and he blames the vaccinated in her school for this

Dr. Macauley speaks. He starts off with some pictures of celebrities. First- Anthony Hopkins the actor – then Anthony Hopkins in character as Hannibal Lecter. Then of Ralph Fiennes the actor- then in charactor as Voldemort from Harry Potter.

Then a picture of himself (Dr. M) and a picture of Jenny McCarthy

And he says (this is not word for word- I took notes but don’t recall the exact things he said)- and the students all laugh -” just as these actors are playing a role, I am here playing a role”. I have had a lot of conversations with the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice and I have three things to say about them. 1st – they are profoundly wrong. They are very intelligent. They love their kids. (These three points are word for word)

Then he proceeds with slides from NVIC, Safeminds and Ask Dr. Sears. Posing questions VT Coalition has asked like: Too many too soon, do the docs have financial incentives to vaccinate, there have been no deaths from measles. All of this he says calmly and without ridicule.

Next speaker, Dr. Rebecca Bell spoke for the rest of the session – with her answers to the above questions.
Some points she made:
– Vaccines are the greatest medical invention of all time

– Doctors look at the big picture- following Public Health

– It’s the law to vaccinate to attend school

-While addressing safely concerns she mentions a “cheerleader on youtube who was supposedly injured by the flu shot. Says if you have not seen it you should…it’s CRAZY (very dismissive)

– she says the number of antigens in vaccines in the 1900’s were about 200..then up to 3217…now there are about 126 in all vaccines given. (160 if you include HPV)

– goes on to say kids can handle up to 10,000 antigens at once Never a mention of what else is in the vaccines.

-addressing the question regarding isn’t it better to get natural immunity versus vaccines she says- children under 2 that get diseases don’t get natural immunity

– talks about how the Rotashield vaccine was pulled from the market after one year- hence vaccines are monitored for safety

– says Hep B at birth is necessary because Hep B virus can survive on a spot of blood for up to 7 days and infect someone. says 9,000 kids yearly get Hep B through casual contact.

– showed a slide of and spoke of treating 2 kids (17mos old) with Hep B in their throats- closing their esophagus– had to remove the lesions (not sure what to call them). Very powerful slide.

– VAERS – says the CDC monitors this but anyone can report anything to VAERS and can report multiple times – it is not necessarily accurate and things reported may not be caused by the vaccine.

– Says there is NO FORCED VACCINATION nor will there be- just states vaccines would be a requirement to attend public or private school. Just like we would not allow those with guns to attend school . Yes they compared vaccines to guns.

– about docs receiving financial incentives- says docs are monitored by Medicaid/Medicare/Pharma and if they feel they are not offering their patients the proper “standard of care” such as vaccines- they may refuse reimbursement – and yes docs may receive bonuses for good vaccination rates as they are being rewarded for providing good standards of care.

They took about 3 or 4 questions in the end but most students started leaving right away. Not much of a discussion. Dr. M did mention how they seem to have more supporters in the legislature this year to be in favor of removing the exemptions “so that is good.”

In my opinion these people have their minds set and nothing would change it unless something happened to their child and they connected the dots. Hard to know what the students thought- but they laughed in all the appropriate places 🙁

“It’s what I rely on… We have to listen to what they are saying to protect our most precious resource… Pediatricians care – they care…The word choice is misleading.. They can still choose to have their children not vaccinated but then to put them in a school with someone like me, who has taken these public health measures by having my kids vaccinated, I just don’t think that is fair…” – Shawna Lidsky

(And UVM medical students also managed to get an op-ed published into VTdigger in May, even though many coalition members had been told their letters would not appear because the opinion pages were simply too full… their letter is here….). One very speaicl med studnet – mandatory vaccination supporter OB/GYN George Till’s own son – even managed to “close out” the one public hearing held on the issue. What a coincidence!! Watch the show, here from 116:.. http://www.orcamedia.net/show/bill-h98-reportable-disease-registries-data-may-11-2015

The young Brian Till, son of mandatory vaxxer George Till, a medical student who coincidentally closed the hearing… says that vaccines are their own worst enemy. He also speaks highly of Lewis First, mentioning that he is on the board of medical examiners.